From Reddit: Open Letter to the RNC: I am your demographic and you've lost my vote

I am your demographic. I am a white, middle-class, male, 40-something. white collar, family man, a son of immigrants, former military, patriot, and raised Catholic. I have voted Republican in almost every primary and election since I turned 18. That means I voted for Reagan, Bush, Dole, and Bush. Last election I was so disillusioned with you, I voted for Obama. This year neither one of the main candidates will get my vote, and let me tell you why.

I am a middle-class, white collar businessman and have been for 20 years. I watched through the latest crisis how the people that bankroll you and you pass laws for have absolutely destroyed the economy in this country. Offshoring, outsourcing, downsizing, rightsizing, securitization; all doctrines used in the name of "shareholder value" that have eviscerated the middle class and eliminated entire industries. I have seen friends' careers destroyed, neighborhoods laid waste, and whole communities suffer all for a little more EPS. These people you take your orders from are criminal and traitors and should all be behind bars, some of you included.

I am a technophile. Oil is a dead-end technology. Stop trying to squeeze a drop of blood from that stone and come up with a strategic approach to energy independence. Electric, solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear are all methods of generating DOMESTIC energy. They will create investment and jobs. Stop whipping up the uneducated against electric cars and high-speed trains. These are mature technologies that can immediately stop sending our money to overseas despots that absolutely hate us. A portion of every dollar you send overseas makes dead American soldiers. Which leads me to...

I am former military, the son of immigrants, and member of the NRA. My family came to this country for freedom and opportunity because America was the land where you could do anything you dreamed. You have corrupted that. I have been to too many military funerals and memorial ceremonies for good young men who died overseas, and for what? Why are we over there, anywhere? No one wants us there anymore, including our hosts. Bring the boys home, close the bases, DEFEND America instead of these militaristic junkets you support so rabidly. We have a military that is larger exponentially than our nearest enemy. It is unnecessary and wasteful. Stop giving money to our adversaries in foreign aid and focus on rebuilding this country.

On that same note, I am a patriot, and the TSA and "Homeland Security" are an abomination. I could quote Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Washington, or Hamilton here but it's pointless. You know them, but you either ignore them or twist them for your own ends. The founding fathers would be rising up themselves today if they could see how the Constitution has been indefinitely detained itself. The PATRIOT Act, NDAA, and all of the bastard children of those laws need to stop. It actually turns my stomach now when the word "security" comes on any news report, which is about a dozen times an hour. You are making Americans fearful which will be our downfall.

Additionally, the War on Drugs is lost. Legalize, tax, regulate, and provide treatment. Every country who has done this is light years ahead of us in terms of bringing this under control. Then again without a militarized police force you are unable to keep the populace in line as easily.

I am white. I have no fear of other races, cultures, creeds, or nationalities. I do business with muslims, Pakistanis, Israelis, Chinese, Mexicans, Germans, English, Japanese, and of course Americans. They are all people just like me. I have served with many of those people, had relationships with all races and cultures, and am friends with anyone who is a good person. Holding any ethnic group responsible for the actions of a few is reprehensible and anytime I hear about "the muslims" in a general negative light, you shift me further away...

19. No room for thinking Republicans in today's GOP

The modern day Republican Party regards thinking as dangerous left-wing nonsense (to steal a line from the Guardian's Simon Hoggart about the British Conservative Party back when William Hague was leader).

5. Again - One of the best letters I've ever seen...

Every decision made by congress needs to be focused on benefiting all American people.

We need to continue on the path toward creating a better America where people can live a better life than their parents.

We've been sold out and the damage that has been done is going to take years and years to reverse.

If you want to make more restrictive laws...
go back to Europe.

The United States should be a SHINING example of the best that life has to offer. Right now we have reverted to the dark ages where the wealthy aristocracy looks down upon the serfdom and sees us as cannon fodder and an inconvenience.

7. The Democratic Party should own the legalization issue but they are too scared.

9. Watch the Republicans capitalize on it.

They are losing the <30 vote big time. That could change if they cynically decided to support legalization legislation. Then the Democrats will be left holding the bag, trying to play catch up on an issue that they should be leading on.

8. I've just been writing with another HuffPoster who is a lifelong Republican, but

who is going to vote for President Obama this year. He voted for President Obama in 2008, too.

Here is his post to me:

"After the Colorado primary I am going to switch my party affiliation to Democrat. I don't see any option, the Republican party has gone over the Tea Party cliff and shows no indication it regrets that. I am going to use my primary vote to symbolically vote against my Congressman (Lamborn) for a different Tea Partier just because that's all the influence I've got, that one vote. Then, since I voted Democrat in 2008 and will do so again in 2012, I may as well switch."

17. What does that matter?

He's not going to vote for any of the Republicans because he feels he doesn't fit in the Republican Party anymore. And he's not alone.

He's the third Republican I've posted with who's announced this on HuffPost in the past four months. There are probably more. I recall one who was a staunch rightwinger even, but even he feels the Republican Party has gone too far to the right. He was the biggest surprise because he and I had pretty heated debates over the years. He was a McCain man and Sarah Palin fan all the way in 2008. Now he'll vote for President Obama.

I guess when Republicans hang around with Progressives long enough and the Fox blinders fall off in the face of facts, their eyes open.

FWIW, this is the only other post that one ex-Republican has shared with me:

As a socially progressive registered Republican I knew I was endangered, now I learn as a liberal Christian I don't exist at all

I deduce from the above that he's open to the principles of FDR, JFK, and Truman, don't you? That's why, I assume, he's voting for President Obama.

We are all supply-siders, bank lovers and in favor "slowing the growth of entitlements through reform" now.

The only difference between the parties now on financial legislation is that the old republican party (D) and the new Republican party (R)
disagree on how fast to shovel the money to the top of the ladder while turning the population into cheaper and cheaper labor to someday be sold alongside Chinese workers as slaves to industry.

On civil liberties, the Old Republicans (D) have left all of Bush's constitution destroying laws and either kept them or made them even worse.

There is only the lesser of two Republicans now, and we are to vote for these Republicans because they are the lesser evil to the even worse Republicans.

These are the new facts of life. The name of a party has only been changed to protect the guilty.

12. one step at a time, spooky,

13. One Step Hell!

Spooky might be sneaking up on an important enlightenment .

In truth, many of us exhibit beliefs that could conceivably be considered Liberal OR Conservative. And these views can also vary depending on context. For example: one may own guns yet agree with additional legislation to control independent gun sales.

But the primary revelation of this white man's letter, IMHO, is that at some point, in order to wrest power from the existing Plutocracy, we are going to have to build much more of a consensus. Or figure out a better way to circumvent the police and military under Plutocratic control. MUCH MORE! One way of doing this is to recognize our commonalities, give each other space for our disagreements, and break down the power structure that is binding our economy, our environment, and the advancement of our civilization.

15. Some have also interpreted the text at the link as implying that he will support Ron Paul. But,

the author has responded to such interpretations by saying:

"EDIT 2: I was deliberately trying to avoid discussing Congressman Paul, although many people have posted and messaged me about my position on him, for two reasons:

One, for better or worse, he will likely not be the offered candidate. No matter the reasons, it appears highly unlikely he will receive the nomination. As a result...

Two, he is a lightning rod. Although I agree with some of his positions and disagree with some of his positions, I didn't want those debates to detract from my main points above because that would not have been productive. Congressman Paul is obviously a libertarian candidate running as a Republican. He does not fit into the same category as those listed above, in my opinion."

31. See post #29, you are not understanding the NEW Democratic party.

Free trade is part of the new normal for modern Democrats, as are most of the ideas of the Republicans of the eighties and early nineties.

They are the lesser of two Republicans now, replace "Republicans" with the word "evil" if it makes you feel better, that is all it takes for most to be 100% on board with the new normal of our party, they won't vote for a Republican unless they call themselves a Democrat.
They won't be in favor of Republican policy until it is put forth by a New Democrat, but then they embrace the Republican idea or politician and attack any that are against it.

Look how vigorously they defended this Republican Idea promoted by Newt and developed by the Heritage Foundation once it was resubmitted by someone with a D next to a name, and any who opposed this Republican Idea from the left was roundly vilified.

34. Well, you know, marketing requires a certain amount of stagecraft to distract the consumers from

the actual product being sold when the ingredients are toxic Heritage Foundation and Neo-liberal ingredients.

There are only two products on the shelf.
The problem is that while both are selling very similar toxic products to a diverse demographic,
All that is being discussed is the brand war (Coke or Pepsi!) and not what is wrong with the harmful ingredients of both.

Both benefit from this stagecraft.

The sad thing is that one brand had an almost healthy product available that everyone loved and still crave for, but the corporate big-wigs changed the formula to more closely resemble their opponent's product leaving nothing left that is healthy on the shelves.

Because I am allergic to right wing corporatism I have nothing left to consume that is still being sold.